


One door opens

by zeo_nulla



Series: Descending [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Bill Is going to be seen like Dipper having an imaginary friend, Bill is morally Grey, Boogeyman Bill Cipher, Bullying alluded to, Friendship, He likes Dipper though, Hurt Dipper Pines, Magic mentions, Mute Dipper, Other, Science, Sort of forced, Trigger warnings for mild horror, mentions, mild horror elements, past trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:47:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26203681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeo_nulla/pseuds/zeo_nulla
Summary: Still, they stood on the top stair together for a while until his sister spoke up."Let's just go back to bed, I am sure we can do something fun in the morning."He nodded silently following her to their room."Besides, you would probably get scared just like you always do on our walks." His sister Giggled and it made something bitter build up in him.When one door is opened by Curious mute Dipper Pines...will he like what life gives him?
Relationships: Bill Cipher & Dipper Pines
Series: Descending [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1902970
Comments: 8
Kudos: 63





	One door opens

It all started when they stepped down that first stair that fateful night eight years ago. They had been forebay from entering the study which was in the basement. 

Still, the ten-year-old twins were curious, it had been raining all week of their summer trip to the house in the woods that their great uncles had, men of the world who studied and fought it in equal measure. Dipper had been excited to meet Ford, only to begin feeling out of place and removed.

His sister was better at being an adventurer than him, she was quick thinking, kind, and a great conversationalist.

Ford had been taken with her as had Stan and they would go on walks in the woods, Dipper came too, of course, but he was at the back, rarely spoken to.

It was demoralizing.

Still, they stood on the top stair together for a while until his sister spoke up.

"Let's just go back to bed, I am sure we can do something fun in the morning."

He nodded silently following her to their room.

"Besides, you would probably get scared just like you always do on our walks." His sister Giggled and it made something bitter build up in him.

\----

He had fallen asleep only to wake an hour later covered in sweat and gasping for breath, a look to the side showed his sister sleeping amongst a horde of stuffed animals, unconcerned of her brothers newest night terror.

Why should she be? She never was concerned when he was afraid...she laughed at him.

He sighed and shuffled downstairs, true he was not outgoing like his sister but he was quiet and easily passed by, a ghost among humans. The twin's parents really hopped that sending them here would make them better people, down to earth and stronger.

If anything Dipper felt weaker being here.

Sneaking a bag of animal crackers and a glass of milk he was about to head back upstairs and read when he noticed something.

The basement door was still ajar.

It was a beautiful cherrywood door, it looked like it was stained with old blood in the dim light.

Dipper's breath caught in his throat as he listened to the ticking of the clock on the wall in the kitchen.

He released the breath as he stood on the first step down to the basement, milk left behind on the table, but keeping the baggy of animal crackers in the pockets of the sweatpants he slept in.

He would show his sister he was brave and do something she would never dare to.

He descended.

____

The study proved to be beautiful, a circular room with walls covered in bookshelves filled with scrolls and tomes.

One wall had a fireplace where the bookshelves were carved into the brick of the wall itself, the others were covered all but for two, the one to the stairs and another that had a small black door, it looked just a little smaller than most normal doorways, it was probably made for an adult to crawl through so they had a difficult time coming and going without alerting people.

As dipper let his bare feet sink into the plush brown carpet he thought about turning back now, he already had proven himself...but there was nothing scary about this his sister would just laugh at him.

No, he had to go deeper.

With all the bravery he could muster he reached out and pushed on the small door, and as he did so it fully flipped, pulling him inside with the power of a revolving door.

The darkness was the only thing he knew now and he had to run his hands over stone walls to know where he was going, he was easily able to trek upright through the tunnel, though that gave him little comfort as the walls got warmer to the touch and he felt strange ridges run along with them.

He began to hear something...like breathing and he saw a dim amber glow in the distance as he squinted in the gloom.

He padded forward now with purpose and as the light became brighter he saw that the strange ridges on the wall were like dark vines, putting his hand to one it had some give, the black vines were everywhere, but motionless and the sound of breathing increased as he pushed on.

He was terrified but this was still no worse than his nightmares, he was forcing himself onward in pure spite at this moment until he broke into a room. It was cold barren stone and circular, odd carvings lined every edge of the room in an unbroken chain.in the very centre of the room was a large cage that took up most of it, the vines were leaking from it, he noticed that closer to the cage the vines looked more alive than the blackened ones lining the tunnel.

Yet the thing about this that made him draw closer was the light, filtering in and bringing warmth to this dismal room.

It came from the cage.

He drew closer and closer before realizing the light came from one giant unfocused eye.

He was proud he did not pee his pants and only uttered a little squeak of terror.

He knew his uncles fought monsters...but this was insane.

Still, the eye looked bleary, like the creature made of these dark vines was sleeping. He noticed peaks of panic to the breathing and his brows knitted in concern.

Was the monster having a nightmare? 

He could empathize then, and without thinking he reached into the cage, laying the packet of animal crackers inside before stepping back and away as quickly as he could.

"Sorry, maybe I will visit you again?" He whispered before shuffling back into the tunnel with a small wave to the sleeping giant of a creature.

\---

They had known nothing but the abyss of sleep ever since they had been imprisoned, sleep was an oddity to be trapped in for a being that normally haunted dreams, it was not something they relished as they had to relive their defeat over and over. 

Bill Cipher, the boogeyman himself put into an unending sleep? Laughable in theory, in truth it was frustrating. He was in the middle of a particularly painful memory of being wrenched from his dimension and used as a magical battery when he felt something...it was warm, then crinkly and a soft almost...angelic voice ground them to the moment, the world focused for but a second for them to see a little boy in a white shirt with bouncing brown curls drop something on them and wave goodbye to him.

Did someone know about him? Would they come back? 

He wanted to reach out, to lash himself to this boy so he could be present once more. He just wanted to be once more, to feel anything at all…

But it seemed he would have to wait.

patience was not something Bill Cipher knew, but it was something he had to learn.

This child had woken him up, and though he was still weak he would wait, the boy had to return sometime.

\---

Sometime came at three AM four days later. Dipper was busily wiping the tears from his eyes. 

He was left behind in the woods by his family in his latest dream, as they left him wicked black vines had held him down and stopped him from reaching out.

A voice he was sure he had never heard before; male, deep and stern, spoke to him.

"Let them leave. They never loved you."

It had been such a start that he woke up in tears.

After grabbing an apple and putting it in his pocket he descended once again.

He felt something warm ruffle his hair as he entered the tunnel, like something was breathing softly on his face, still he pushed forward until he reached out to touch one of the vines. It touched him back.

He found himself bound and surging forward, being pulled by the vines right to the giant glowing eye.

"Hello there little one, what have you brought me today?" 

\---

Bill was delighted as they watched the child squirm. It was even better when he pulled the boy past the bars into the darkness and felt a flicker, he child had magic and the spells in the room must have fed off of him as well, not discriminating between Bill and the boy.

That is how he woke up, the boy offered him a small boost by giving the runes his magic, even now while the boy was here he felt stronger.

Still, they had not forgotten the last time; the child had given him an offering so he searched the paralyzed boy, who was staring at Bill in silent horror until he registered the touch and began to flinch away and cry.

"Hush, hush. If I wanted to hurt you I would have already. Shhh.~" 

Bill knew he had to keep this boy coming back to him if they wanted their power back.

Plus the kid was pretty cute like a China doll. Pale, rounded cheeks, big brown eyes, button nose, and soft curly hair.

"You brought me a snack last time, did you bring me another?" 

They adjusted their hold on the boy who seemed shell shocked, putting him closer to their main mass and forming a sort of cradle for the boy, keeping him in and close but able to move without the ability to escape.

Numbly and without words the boy pulled an apple out of his pocket, setting it down on the writhing mass below him.

It was snatched up by a smaller tendril and vanished with a soft grinding sound that made the boy wince slightly.

"Ah, it has been so long since someone has given me something to eat, let alone visited me, it is nice to have such a cute little visitor." 

Dipper frowned, a little at being called cute and a little at the implications. This thing...that had done nothing to hurt him, was obviously sentient and was being kept locked up? That seemed wrong, sure it was monstrous-looking but maybe this was a mistake his great uncles had made.

He fiddled with his pyjama top and squirmed to try and fight against the wrongness of the feeling beneath him. Thousands of arms writhing slowly as lazy as a cat in the sun, a headlamp of an eye, like a floodlight casting a glow down on him.

"What's the matter, kid? Don’t feel like talking?"

The thing was...Dipper was a bit of a mute, not in the physical sense, physically there was nothing wrong with him he had everything he really should need to talk, but mentally there was a wall. It is why he had night terrors, why he was sent here.

He remembered the night of his mother in tears hunched over the sink holding a broken plate, his father comforting her.

* * *

"You are running yourself into the ground worrying, you know we talked about this. You need a break."

She was sobbing into the sink.

"The psychiatrist said he was probably born like this, but he is so filled with trauma now he may never speak much at all! She said it like I was a bad mother...I am a bad parent. I can’t even keep my son from being bullied at school."

It was said in a broken sounding whisper. As his father went to comfort her and she began to quietly sob into his arms Dipper fled tears stinging his own eyes.

He could not help but feel useless and like he was the cause of all his parent’s woes.

* * *

He was shocked to reality by a tendril cupping his face, he thought it would be slimy, but it was soft like velvet and it radiated warmth like a bed you had just woken up from on a winter's night.

"No tears now kid...I know you can talk...at least a little, you spoke to me before."

The voice was stern, but not unkind

Oh, he had been crying? He guessed he never realized...but the fact that he spoke out loud elated him. Someone had heard his voice! He normally spoke in small amounts only with family, never at school, he carried a notebook with him all the time and he wished he had one now.

An idea sprung to mind and he hoped this creature could read.

With his finger, he traced on the tendril a word, two letters.

'Hi'

The light of the eye dimmed then refocused upon him.

"Hello, why are you writing on me?" 

Dipper beamed and then his smile faltered as he wrote;

'I am mute. mostly, I can physically talk but I can’t because of trauma, sometimes I say words, but not often and never to strangers.'

"Oooh! I get it! Since you thought I couldn't hear you, that let you speak."

'Probably...sorry to disappoint you, um what is your name?'

"I'm Bill, Bill Cipher!"

The tendrils writhed in a little pleased dance that tickled under dipper and made him smile.

If this was a monster it was a goof.

"What's your name kid?" 

'Dipper pines'

"How fitting that you are wearing pine tree printed sweatpants Pinetree pines!" 

The amusement that Bill got from this notion was clear and the creature poked at him a little even as he pouted at gaining a new nickname...getting the first one had been, a bad part of his life.

'So, can I ask why you are in the basement?'

He had thought about asking Why Bill was in a cage but thought better of the question.

The last thing he wanted to do was anger the creature that held him captive.

"Ah, that is a nasty and altogether too frightening story for such a tiny human, pick something else."

Dipper did not miss how the eye lost light like a dimmer bulb set to fifty-per cent power, he really was interested at this point, his curiosity had been peaked and he was going to have to figure this out.

'Okay, sorry I am not trying to make you upset...just curious.'

One of the tendrils waved flippantly like a hand one would use to bat away an annoying fly.

"It’s fine if I don’t like a question I can just tell you why I am not answering."

It was so nice to hear this, often people chose to converse with him as little as possible because it took too much effort, Bill, however, seemed to enjoy the challenge as they had spooled out several more tendrils onto Dippers lap for him to "write" on.

'What are you? You know I am a human but what are you?'

"Hmm" 

a few tendrils rubbed under the giant eye as if it were a chin and Bill was debating how to answer this.

"Look kid, I will tell you the truth if you 

Don't start screaming, or getting upset or blaming stuff on me...because what I am is also my job."

Dipper pulled a terse look, deep in thought for several moments but curiosity and the desire for knowledge won out.

He nodded his assent.

"I am the Boogeyman..hey, up up up! No writing yet let me finish."

I am kinda stuck looking like this right now, I assure you when I am spooled together I am easier on the eyes, so no asking why I can’t change my form or some nonsense like that, also my job is a job. I do it and it is not personal, it is not like I try to make things worse, in fact, most humans make nightmares all their own. I just nudge them along."

Dippers head was spinning. He thought for a moment he could chew bill out for all the night terrors, but those were probably all his own brains doing...it wasn't so much Bill as he was the problem, like usual.

He hugged his knees and wrote 

'Okay.' 

On Bill, not feeling particularly happy.

Just then there was a clicking sound and a curse of "SWEET BELGIAN WAFFLES MY FOOT...Wait I can curse for real now! Son of a!!"

A sharp smack cut off the curse.

"You will do no such thing Stanley, we just need to check on Cipher and make sure he is still supplying energy to the house and the magic reserves. There has been a sudden change in some of it and I just want to make sure everything is alright."

Bill rapidly began to Cover Dipper and his eye dimmed to the hazy glow Dipper had first seen it as. Dipper was cradled and covered so he could just barely make out the sounds of conversation as his great uncles approached. Not wanting to admit Bill was rather comfortable.

"You worry too much poindexter, look here is our monster, still locked up and asleep like always."

Dipper held his breath as Bill tensed and stopped all movement.

"It would appear that way yes...still I should take a sample. Can you clean one of the appendages while I prep the syringe?"

He tried to contain the tiny giggle as he heard great uncle stan grouse like an old woman about being too good for this dirty work. However, any joy he felt was dipped in ice when he felt Bill tense up.

Was getting a sample painful? How could his uncles do this?! 

"Look, this had better be worth it, I mean poor kids mother is worried sick about when her boy will actually talk full sentences." 

Dipper himself froze, ice entering his veins...that couldn't be…

"If we can use A being of pure fear to create an antidote for trauma then Dipper will be good as new, this was a passion project before, but now our great-nephew needs our help...the poor boy jumps at shadows. I want better for him."

No, no, no….this was all his fault, all his fault, all his fault.

It continued on for who knows how long, long after The elder twins left and Bill started shaking him. He stayed curled in a negative feedback loop.

If he could just get over this and speak normally, if he had been better...this never would have happened.

"KID!"

Bill shook him hard just as he was about to bite down on his own tongue in an attempt to let out some of the negative feelings. Everything hurt and he felt like the worst creature in the room...it was not Bill he was the monster, he only caused others pain.

"Hey...stop crying, come on kid, they locked me up long before you were born. They just are using you as justification." 

He could feel his limbs being manipulated and held expertly as he was swaddled in the dark tendrils and rocked back and forth in slow motions.

"I would do more for you if I could, but I am very stuck. There are runes in this room keeping me in...if only they were gone." 

Dipper blinked the tears from his eyes, he felt like he was made of lead, but he knew what he had to do.

He was at fault so he was going to help Bill.

\---

Was it wrong to use a trauma riddled child for your own gain? Sure! Would it stop Bill? No, not at all. In fact, if the kid did this just so he could latch onto him. Oh that would be nice he was certain of it, see Ford may have been smart to lock him up and keep him trapped but nothing about any parameters of an age-old deal said anything about exchanging his less flexible prison for a mobile one. 

Dipper could easily house him and he would still be counted as "contained" and "kept in the custody of the pines family"

It was perfect, plus the kid was smart but isolated. Bill could enjoy being the only one Dipper would ever speak with.

His own little human to shape.

The kid was filled with self-loathing and Bill was certain they could make this human happy in ways that a human never had known, sure it involved madness and nightmares but the kid would learn to love it.

The eye glowed down on the child as he walked towards a corner of the room to inspect a Rune carved in the floor.

"They are set in the Bricks Pinetree, I don't think you can do much without…"

Bill was surprised by this boy once more, a boy who was now digging his fingers in the seam around the brick and tugging.

As those small hands clasped around the brick Bill could feel the power loosen, sure he still had to be attached to the pines, but Old Fodsey did not need to know that.

Plus, this kiddo was perfect he was gonna have to keep this cute mute. 

A big heart, a big brain and no voice.

He could feel his power returning, yet there was still the tug of magic that told him to "stay put." 

Binding deals that humans worked against him were such a pain.

As they heard the brick clatter out of place they launched forward like living liquid, flooding and pooling around Dipper who was cradled in the substance that was black as tar but covered in eyes. 

Each one glowing like a golden star in the inky blackness of night.

He could feel it on his skin, see it on the way each eye was upturned.

Bill was smiling at him.

Dipper would say what happened to him next was horrifying, but it actually did not scare him as much as he thought it would.

As all those eyes closed and the darkness holding him became a mist that he began to breathe he felt a strange comfort fill him.

All the darkness was inside him and he felt strange, tingly...still he tapped on his own arm in question.

'Bill?'

The voice was sudden; male, warm, and inside his own head.

**I am still with ya kiddo. What do ya think? This way we can talk with each other and stay friends. Cool right?**

And he did think it was cool, he never had a friend, talking to him was too hard. Bill wanted to be friends with him and it made him want to cry.

**Hey now, time to go to bed, no tears. Let's go.**

He could feel warmth encompasses him as if Bill was giving him a hug. He smiled and nodded.

They did not need to go back to this prison ever again.

\---

The next day was a nightmare, Dipper was jostled awake from a dream he had trouble remembering, he had actually slept decently for once, he could feel how rested he was, yet here he was being shaken awake by uncle Ford as he sat up and rubbed his bleary eyes. 

"Dipper, time to wake up, grab your notebook and head downstairs, we need to talk to you and your sister." 

As he watched Ford's retreating back a comment had him bite back a smile.

**Four eyes is a taskmaster really early on huh? Doesn't he know growing Trees need sleep?**

Bill was here, Dipper gently tapped 'good morning' on his arm and grabbed his notebook and pencil case.

**Good morning to you! Man, you are full of night terrors, no worries though I dealt with it, hey also since I am already here just direct thoughts at me. I will let you know if it works and we can try to talk that way!**

The excitement Bill had was infectious and Dipper walked into the living room with a smile. 

Though that quickly faded.

Great uncles Ford and Stan were standing in front of the sofa where his sister sat in her pink bedazzled nightgown holding a stuffed electric blue hippopotamus.

They looked stern, and even Mable in all her endless positivity looked ready to squirm out of her seat.

With an inward sigh and a snide comment about this being an interrogation from Bill he crawled over and sat on the other side of the well-worn mustard colour sofa.

"You may both know that we have hunted monsters, most people don't believe they are real but I know you two realized they are." 

Ford began only to be interrupted by Stan.

"Yeesh, let's just cut to the chase, we had a creepy monster locked in the basement and it is gone now. Have either of you seen a lot of eyes and tentacles?"

Ford shot Stan a look but the latter only shrugged and gave a nonchalant grunt.

Meanwhile, Mable was going nuts asking questions a mile a minute and Dipper just sat listening to Bill.

Of course, he would not rat Bill out, he did not want Bill in a cage because of him.

Plus Bill was his friend, he tried to push that idea towards Bill as best he could and was surprised by the warm tingly feeling he got.

**Aww, Pinetree I like you too kiddo. Hopefully, these two will drop you as a suspect.**

"And why was the monster in the basement? What did you feed it? Did it like glitter? Is it fluffy? What did you name it? Can I meet it?" 

The elder twins were starting to look worn out from his sister but Ford still cast a suspicious glance towards Dipper who began to write in his notebook.

'The same questions as Mabel, minus all the glitter...who eats glitter other than you Mabes?'

His sister looked over and giggled.

"I guess that is true...but you two really had a monster, and you never showed us!?"

Ford looked less suspicious, Dipper often did this, waited for all his sister’s questions and either added or subtracted to the list.

She did speak enough for both of them after all.

"Look children, we would never have shown you that monster, it is a being of pure terror that only wants to haunt dreams." 

**Man, I wish I lived up to that, he could be my hype man pine tree what do ya think?**

He stifled a smile but pushed a mental thumbs up at Bill.

"We caught it a while back before you two were born and were thinking we could figure out how to reverse fear-based trauma…"

Stan looked at Dipper sadly, it made his stomach churn.

"...however, now that it is missing I will need to stay here and do a thorough sweep of the house to see where it has hidden. Stan and I talked about it and it may be a good time for a little road trip for the rest of you." 

Stan, of course, started up his grumbling but it was laced with affection. Dipper enjoyed this about stan. He was hardened on the surface, but under it all, he was really nice to His sister and even him. Sneaking him sweets every so often because: "he could not blab and ruin his reputation." 

Still, he remembered that Stan also teased him whenever he was afraid, telling him to "man up." It left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Like the cheap candy, he was given in secret.

He held up his notebook to ask: 

'What do you mean by a roadtrip?'

When his sister saw what he had written and asked for him, flashing him a thumbs up and adding her own avalanche of questions. Slowly he lowered the book and turned everyone out. 

His sister did this often, she would speak for him and it made him...equal parts upset as he was fond.

She was trying to help, he knew this, but it also made him feel like he had no reason to even try.

His sister would do it all for him anyway.

He receded deeper into his own thoughts until he realized he was no longer looking out at the living room but in a darkened room with no windows, no features at all, really other than the old couch he had sat on, now a blood-red chaise lounge.

He shook his head to dispel his confusion and felt a tugging pain on his lips.

Gingerly he touched them.

His lips were sewed shut and his eyes widened in panic, fingers reaching to tear at the terrible thread lining his mouth when long elegant fingers gloved in white gently held his panicking fingertips.

**Pinetree, it is okay. This is just how your brain portrays you being mute.**

Dipper knew this voice, it was calming, friendly.

Yet he could not make out more than the silhouette of a man where the white gloves attached to it like a living shadow, though there was one other thing he saw, and that was the eye, that golden expressive bundle of light. His fingertips glided across the silken surface of the white gloves.

'Bill?'

He swore he could feel the smile Bill gave him in his voice.

**One and the same kiddo! Told ya I look fetching when I am all bundled together...although I guess your brain has not really made up its mind on what I should really look like to you yet. That is pretty nifty!**

He furrowed his brow. Bill was weird, he knew that in fact it would be pretty odd to ask the boogeyman to be "normal" but the fact that Bill kept bringing up his brain was making him have a freakout.

'Bill, where are we?'

**Oh? You conked out kiddo. You are physically asleep on the couch but your sleeping mind is here with me. Call it your mindscape. You are not really dreaming but you are not awake. Lucid dreaming is what some call it, although I may have nudged it along.~**

Dipper needed a moment to process, despite being very good at writing and reading comprehension, (because he had to.) Talking to Bill was always an experience, it was weird to think that he really had just met the monster, it felt like he had Known Bill for his whole life.

'So, this is like...a shared space for us to hang out?'

**Precisely little Pinetree! Here have a dancing skeleton!**

And there in front of him stood a dancing skeleton. Bill was morbid...but this was really goofy looking as the bones completed a jig and ended it with jazz hands before it vanished leaving Dipper smiling.

It struck him that he was going to have Bill as his friend for a long time and that actually did not scare him too much.

He felt lighter just having someone to "talk" to.

'I am really glad we are friends Bill."

**Me too kiddo, Me too.**

Dipper was already in too deep and was too young to know that he was entangled with things he never should have messed with in the first place.

**Author's Note:**

> An idea that came to me months ago but it just was not working until now, which is great! Because I wanted to make something near the end of August for the Twin's birthday.  
> I may continue work on this, it's more of a side thing that will be made through out-of-order one-shots.  
> But I have talked your ear off enough for the day! happy death of summer!  
> ~Zeo


End file.
